Pentecostalism’s Forgotten Nonviolent Roots

by Aaron Taylor 03-27-2009

As I write this post, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Eugene, Oregon waiting for the Society for Pentecostal Studies conference to start. It’s nice to have a day to myself. I’m thankful I was able to sleep in this morning, but I’m going to be honest with you – I’m pretty nervous.

Most of the people that will be attending have doctoratal degrees and are teaching subjects like history, theology, philosophy, and ethics on a university level. The most education I have is two years of a very fundamentalist Bible school, a third year school of missions, and a semester at a community college. I don’t even have a bachelor’s degree.

So why am I here chumming with Pentecostal scholars?

As someone who hasn’t pursued high education, but decided to go the self-education route and take my non-credentialed Biblical knowledge straight to the mission field, it would be very easy for me to a) dismiss myself as someone that a Doctor of Divinity would never listen to or b) dismiss the Doctor of Divinity as someone who needs to jump off his intellectual high horse and try sharing a Bible story with a Senegalese villager.

Somehow I don’t think that either of these approaches would be the right attitude. The fact is that Pentecostalism started out as a radical, non-violent faith that challenged — not championed — power structures that perpetuate poverty and ethnocentrism. Pentecostals (and their charismatic godchildren) today have done an absolute 180 and are, tragically, now some of the most militant Christians on the planet. Thanks to TV evangelists, the unholy fusion of Christianity, Zionism, and American nationalism is the status quo in most American Pentecostal/charismatic churches — with very few exceptions.

I imagine that most of my Pentecostal/charismatic friends would be shocked to discover that the vast majority of Christians that experienced the revival at Azusa street (the revival that birthed Pentecostalism world-wide) also believed that the proper Christian response to war is conscientious objection. Most of the historic Pentecostal denominations that exist today started out as officially pacifist. As a matter of fact, the Assemblies of God didn’t officially change its position until 1967. Perhaps even more shocking is that some of the Pentecostal pioneers were imprisoned and — yes, it can happen in America — tortured for their refusal to participate in World War I.

Most Pentecostal/charismatic Christians today, especially the younger ones, have no idea that their heritage is rooted in non-violence, but guess who are the ones that do know this? The scholars! Which is exactly why Pentecostal scholars need to play a larger role in shaping the Pentecostal movement for the 21st century. As a Pentecostal/charismatic Christian myself, but an outsider to academia, I’m here to rub shoulders with some of the most prominent Pentecostal scholars from around the world — and to deliver a message to them. Tell our people about our heritage!

For the sake of God, our country, and the world, I hope someone listens.

Aaron D. Taylor is the author of Alone with a Jihadist, scheduled to be released in mid-2009.

Categories: Violence and Nonviolence

squeaky

HELP IMPROVE THE BLOG

Hey everyone--please take a moment and e-mail Giannii Calvert to let him know the comment section on this site is difficult to navigate. I've been conversing with him off and on, but he asked for others to do the same. He isn't seeing the problems we are.

giannii@disqus.com

In the meantime--for those of you who haven't discovered this yet, the site navigates much easier if you use the "community page" setting under options.

Eric77

Yes, I'm having trouble even clicking on the "more comments" section and getting anything to come up. Is this happening to you squeaky?

squeaky

Why, yes...yes it is.

Or at least it was until I completely abandoned the "more comments" option out of annoyance and frustration. Now I almost exclusively use the community page.

letjusticerolldown

What can I do without going on the community page? Almost nothing.

I did send a brief email.

squeaky

Thanks! He told me that he monitors several networks, and this is the first he is hearing of the problem. It seems like he needs to hear from more than just me so he knows it really is a problem.

Joe_Allen_Doty

I am from an Assemblies of God (a classical Pentecostal denomination) background and I was last a member of an AG in March 1984. That church is in Tulsa, OK and my membership ended when I moved to California that month. I am still Pentecostal by experience but no longer belong to any church. I now am back in Tulsa and live about a block from that same church, which I have visited a few times since last July.

I am a US Army veteran (July '66 through July '68) and a Vietnam veteran (Feb. 15, '67 through Feb. 13, '68). I didn't know that while the General Council of the Assemblies of God has chaplains in the US Military, they will support any AG member who wants Conscientious Objector status because he is anti-war.

The Assemblies of God has become political in its anti-homosexual agenda, too. While it is not officially a part of the Assemblies of God doctrine, it has an "Official Position Paper on Homosexuality." That paper has a lot of stereotypical language in it and it ignores the fact that all of the scriptures used in the paper to call homosexuality a sin don't have any literal contextual connection to homosexuals.

The AG supports ex-gay organizations like Exodus International which was started in a Charismatic church in Anaheim, CA. The founder, Michael Bussee, has since left the organization and he has apologized for the harm that he did while head of Exodus. He now counsels gays and lesbians to just accept themselves as God created them. Michael is now an ex-ex-gay.

PASTOR JEFF

"That paper has a lot of stereotypical language in it and it ignores the fact that all of the scriptures used in the paper to call homosexuality a sin don't have any literal contextual connection to homosexuals."
Joe_Allen, could you please expand this comment. Thank You

Joe_Allen_Doty

I discussed the stereotypical language with Dr. Zenas Bicket when he was the head of the doctoral committee of the AG.

When Dr. Bicket was the president of the AG's Evangel University, an education professor who taught psychology, Dr. Brock, had his son come out of the closet. While I never personally knew Dr. Brock, he became a close friend of my parents after he moved back to Tulsa and retired from being an educator and missionary. I did not know Dr. Brock's son personally; but, I had several friends who did.

When we discussed Dr. Brock's son, I prove to him that Steve didn't fit any of the stereotypical language in the paper.

I also told him that the same-gender sexual activity in the book of Leviticus and in the book of Romans was actually done by heterosexuals in pagan fertility rituals. The same-gender sexual activity done in the book of Leviticus was connected with the Canaanite religion. Every time that the word "Sodomite" appears in the KJV Bible, the literal translation of the noun is "holy" as in a holy person in service to a deity. And the contexts where "Sodomite" appears has to do with the religion which started in the country of Canaan.

PASTOR JEFF

Thank you. Could you reference the paper for me?

Joe_Allen_Doty

Just go to the General Council of the Assemblies of God website at http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Position_Papers

Go down to the link for the .pdf version of "Homosexuality."

jeffp

What does Aaron Taylor mean when he says "militant Christian"?

PASTOR JEFF

I think he means one that embraces "just war" theory applied liberally to US global involvement. My suspicion is that this is rooted in the relative poverty and resultant higher military enrollment of it's members. The secondary contributing factor is the increased emphasis on "spiritual warfare" and it's accompanying use of militaristic language/culture (God's Warriors, spiritual armor, etc.). Care to comment Aaron?

meurig

I feel a need to be picky about terminology here. I am no fan of the just war theory, which has no real biblical roots and was developed by Augustine and others to assist the accommodation of the church to its new position as part of the establishment. However, the criteria set forward in classic just war theory seek to limit and restrict participation in war, not justify any conflict that comes along. I cannot think of a modern conflict that would satisfy all of the classic just war criteria.

What you're referring to, Pastor Jeff, is a theology of "holy war" or "crusade". Except that instead of a single pope in Rome justifying it seems we now have hundreds of mini-popes, all convinced of their own authority, and equally convinced that God has told them that someone should go out and slay the heathen.

As for spiritual warfare, to me that is a reality. I am in a struggle against evil forces every day. But it is vital to remember, with Paul in Ephesians 6, that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood".

PASTOR JEFF

The spiritual warfare I am speaking of is Christian school children memorizing the armor of God complete with skits, choruses that emphasize the spiritual "battles" and books that romanticize and imagine the spiritual warfare in heavenly places such as Frank Peretti's series. I believe language is powerful and influences the impressionable most profoundly. Thank you for a more clear wording re: just war theory. To me, it's all just making excuses for taking matters into our own hands and not following Christ's example. You can probably blame the Baptists for all the demagougery you aptly described as mini-popes. Egalitarianism does lend itself to tyranny.

Palosaari

Another bit of pickiness- miltiant refers to how strident and committed you are. MLK was militant, as was Ghandi - and for that matter, Jesus. Military-minded is a different thing altogether.

jeffp

Picky how?

Joe_Allen_Doty

Mr. Taylor is referring to the "militant Christian" as one who is no longer being an evangelist for Christ Jesus; but, one who has become politically militant.

Quite a few of the Charismatic church pastors who are also televangelists are political militants in that they have started preaching politics from the pulpit instead of Jesus' Gospel.

Many of the Pentecostal/Charismatic church pastors were disappointed when so many of their younger than 30 year olds voted for Barack Obama instead of John McCain.

Born Again Bird Watcher

Thanks for sharing this insight into what is a too often overlooked aspect of Pentacostalism. I hope you have a great experience at the conference.

scat

Thanks for the history lesson. :I would have never guessed that Pentacostals started out as pacifists. Whenever I happen to land on one of their tv broadcasts, they look more like jingoistic war-whoopers. that is why I do not watch their programs.

canucklehead

watch out for those "doctoratal" people, Aaron, worse than jihadists, those boys